Erich Kupfer was born in Munich in 1919. His parents were Karl Kupfer (1878-c1943), a lawyer, and Selma Kupfer (née Weiermann, 1890-c1943), daughter of successful shoe manufacturer Joseph Weiermann (1863-1939) in Burgkunstadt. After completing his three-year training programme in Oberhof, Erich worked for Neuburger shoe manufacturing company in Bamberg from January 1938. When his parents' flat was confiscated in 1938 they had to move to Erich's grandmother, Maria Weiermann (1868-1944). In order to escape further persecutions Erich emigrated to New York via Amsterdam in October 1938. His parents and his grandmother were deported in 1943. The exact dates of Karl and Selma's deaths at Auschwitz concentration camp are unknown. Maria Weiermann perished at Terezin concentration camp in 1944. Her son Julius Weiermann (1892-1941), who had been running the shoe business after his father's death, was killed in Kaunas.
Erich served in the U.S. Army between 1941-1946 and returned to working in the shoe business after the Second World War. He married Ruth Landau (1921-1996) in London in 1946, also a former Jewish refugee from Germany. Ruth Kupfer was born in Wesel, North Rhine-Westphalia. She emigrated to England in 1939. Her parents, Alex (1882-1941) and Emma Landau (née Bongartz, 1879-1941) were deported from Dusseldorf to Riga in December 1941. They both perished but the exact circumstances of their deaths are unknown.
Erich and Ruth Kupfer moved to New York shortly after their marriage.
From the guide to the Kupfer family papers, 1929-2010, (Wiener Library)
